The present invention relates to a child-resistant air freshener container for containing scented odor-neutralizing beads or other fragrance materials that absorb surrounding odors and diffuse a pleasant fragrance into a surrounding environment and, more specifically, to a bottle and cap locking mechanism that includes a gasket for allowing a person to initially open and unseal the freshener bottle and then fully lock the cap onto the bottle to prevent a child from being able to access the odor-neutralizing beads contained therein once the seal is removed.
Air freshener containers that contain odor-neutralizing beads are often used in laundry rooms, bathrooms, and other rooms and locations throughout a home, office and other locations where a candle may be inconvenient or where an air freshener device is preferred. Some individuals prefer to use air freshener containers utilizing odor-neutralizing beads as compared to other air freshener devices widely known and used such as candles, reed diffusers, or plug-in air freshening devices.
Air freshener containers utilizing odor-neutralizing beads typically include a threaded bottle or jar for engaging corresponding threads on a bottle cap or closure lid and a removable seal covering the beads and fragrance oils typically housed within the bottle. The bottle cap is typically threadedly engaged to the bottle over the removable seal when packaged for sale and requires, the user to remove the cap and then remove the seal before use. A typical air freshener container includes a bottle cap threaded on its inner wall for engaging the corresponding threads on the outer wall of the neck of the bottle. The bottle cap includes a plurality of vent holes for allowing the scent of the odor-neutralizing beads to emanate from the bottle. The removable seal helps to prevent the odor-neutralizing beads within the bottle from drying out and losing their fragrance before use, and it likewise further prevents the fragrant oils contained within the bottle from leaking before use. By removing the seal, the odor-neutralizing beads begin to diffuse the pleasant fragrance to the surrounding environment. As a result, before a typical air freshener fragrance container can be activated, the cap or closure member must be removed and re-engaged with the fragrance bottle after the seal has been removed.
Many child safety locks exist and are known in the art for securely locking a cap to a bottle so as to prevent children from accessing the contents of the container. Once the child safety lock is engaged, it is extremely difficult to reopen the container and, in some mechanisms, it requires breaking the mechanism to gain access to the contents of the container. For example, in some known air freshener fragrance jars, the stoplock mechanism is associated with both the fragrance bottle neck and the cap and when the cap is fully engaged with the bottle neck, the lock mechanism prevents the cap from being again removed to access the contents of the bottle or the seal if the seal has not been removed. This is not desirable. Also, fully engaging the child safety lock before removing the removable seal renders the air freshener container unusable unless one is able to poke holes through the seal via the vent holes in the cap. Even if this is possible, the full fragrance capacity of the container cannot be activated since only a small portion of the removable seal has been removed via the poking of holes therethrough to allow the fragrance to pass therethrough.
A child lock mechanism is therefore desired that still allows the bottle cap to be securely locked to the bottle with the removable seal in place but without engaging the child safety lock, then allows the cap to be removed to provide access to the removable seal for removal thereof, and then further allows the cap to be re-engaged to the bottle neck so as to engage the child safety lock. This solution should be simply designed, inexpensive, and easily manufactured.